Work after Love
by medfasoccer17
Summary: Ever want to know how EXACTLY Palex became a couple? Read on...Paige and Alex try to get some quality alone time at work.But both of them are unsure that the other wants to be together.Yahoo I updated! Chapter 6 is now up and running.
1. Chapter 1

AU: This is set about 2 days after Paige showed up on Alex's doorstep in Lexicon of Love. It's the first day of work they had together and also the first time they've seen eachother since because to make things easier for me I'm going to pretend that it happened on a Friday. Also the hand holding scene at the end was interrupted by Chad and Alex had to go back in her house.

Alex is late for a lot of things. She's late for school, late for appointments, but mostly, she's late for work. So it was understandable that she was half running into work afterschool on Monday.

" I know Meerie, I'm late. Sorry it won't happen ag-oh." she got to the concession stand when she realised that there was a pair of aqua eyes staring at her, not cold brown ones. Alex's heart rate instantly picked up but she tried to play it off and sound casual. You're not Meerie."

Paige smiled and rolled her eyes handing the brunette her work visor " Nope. And you're lucky. Meerie got in some accident or something with her car and she's also running late." Alex grabbed the visor and tried to smile back at her. She made the mistake of looking into those deep blue eyes and got lost though, just as she was about to flash her teeth.What it came out as was a grimace of pain or sadness. _Oh great smile Alex. Very welcoming._

Paige took her grimace as sadness for Meerie. _HA! _Alex thought_. Like hearing about that hag wrecking her car makes me sad!_ " Alex it was just a little dent. She's not like, hurt, or anything.

Alex snorted at the idea " I just stubbed my toe", she lied. Alex had always been good at lying, but when it came to Paige, she wasn't so sure that she would be able to. She avoided eye contact just to be sure. " Trust me. Having her out of my way while I'm working is _not_ an issue." Paige giggled.

"You're telling me! She's always staring at me when I'm giving the costomers their candy. Like I'm randomly going to lose it and stuff the JuJu Bees down their throat. She must've heard me telling you that last month cause she is always up my- Hi Meerie!" Paige swallowed her words as Meerie walked in scowling and wet. Paige was praying in her mind that she didn't just hear her last sentence or two. Alex on the other hand had on her tradmark smirk as she smiled falsley at her boss.

" Raining is it? Shame. I'm assuming you had to walk here from the car garage?" she said with false concern. Alex always knew how to push someone far enough to irritate them, but not quite far enough to cause any real damage. Paige knew this, because she was often a victim of her antics.

"Mmph" Meerie responded walking past her and going toward the staircase that led to the second floor office." I'm going to be making some calls about my car so you two are in charge. Try not to screw up. I'll probably be checking up on you in about an hour and a half or so." she said looking pointedly at Alex. Paige smiled warmly at Meerie.

" Don't worry about it. Take as long as you need. We've got it under control." she said confidently pinning her name tag onto the horrible polyester vest. Alex fought back the instinct to roll her eyes._ Paige is such an overachiever. But that's why I like her. Woah. I'm going to be alone with her for an hour and a half. Well besides the customers. But other than that... But wait. We never really set anything in stone. I mean, as far as I know, she could still just want to be friends. We didn't kiss or anything. This is going to be really really akward._

Meerie bought Paige's encouraging words though, and smiled back at her.She walked up the stairs, but not before shooting Alex another warning glance. As soon as she reached the top step, Paiges smile vanished.

" God I hate polyester." she said grumpily sitting on the counter,watching as Alex finished putting on her uniform. Paige couldn't help but breathe a little heavier when Alex's shirt lifted the slightest bit revealing her stomach. She bit her lip and looked away.

_Is she still mad? I think I made myself clear. I made it sound like I wanted a more than friends realationship didn't I? We didn't kiss though, so maybe she doesn't get it._ She looked back at Alex._ She'll get it by the end of our shift though_, Paige thought smiling to herself. Alex looked up in time to see Paige staring at her, and she couldn't help but blush.

_Since when do I blush? Thats not..me. But of course it's Paige who makes me do it. Typical. _Piage smiled at Alex, and then went back to organzing the candy. It was Alex's turn to stare as she watched Paige with a troubled expression on her face._ I don't want to try anything again, if she didn't mean she wanted me like that. It didn't work out two das ago so what makes me think it will now? I'm just going to avoid her. Yeah, that's what I'll do... yeah fucking right. This will last.._

" Um I'm just going to uh... re-stock the candy." Alex mumbled walking into the back room. Paige looked at her oddly and then pulled out her phone. _When in doubt, call Marco_.


	2. when in doubt call marco

**Paiges Point of View**

When in doubt call Marco. He's the only one besides Hazel who has any clue what's going on. And I'm not exactly about to call Hazel for this. I can just imagine. "Hi Hazel? It's Paige, you know, Queen Bee of Degrassi. I was wondering if you had any advice as to how I should bring up my realationship status with a cerain brunette wrapped in polyester. Alex, the _girl._"

No it was much more sensible to call Marco. He's almost like one of my girlfriends, only with better advice. Oh and he's gay so that's a plus. I dialed Marco's number and waited patiently for him to pick up the phone. _Ring Ring Ring_ Come on Marco pick it up! _Ring Ring Ring Ri- _

_"_Hello?" Marco's voice filled my eardrums and I could feel myself being soothed. Marco's great for stuff like this. He's there to talk if you need him, but he also knows when to just shut up and let me vent. This was not one of those times. Right now, I need him to talk, and I need him to talk fast.

"Marco," I said " do you have like less than five minutes to help me out a little?".

I must have sounded a little desperate because he replied instantly sounding concerned."Yeah sure. What's up?" I sighed deeply and took a second to reflect. Was I really about to say this. Once it's said, it's not easily taken back.

" Alex is what's up," I said craning my neck to make sure she was still in the back room. I could practically see Marco's perfectly well kept eyebrows raising in interest as he let out a low whistle.

"So there's still an Alex issue?" He asked. I rolled my eyes and snapped back, "Yes! And I need your help. Quick...GO!" I said whispering frantically into the phone still checking behind me that she hadn't emerged with boxes of Whoppers.

"I'm going to need a little more info than 'she kissd me last night' if I'm going to be any help." he snapped back. I decided to soften my tone with him a bit. It wasn't his fault after all that I had made a mess of things, tried to fix it, and apparently failed.

I took a deep breath and began, " Ok, so night of the premiere, we were having a great time, like best night ever kind of great, but then of course Jay had to come and interrupt while we were dancing." I said, talking a mile a minute, "Well, he just _had_ to start making comments about me, apparently that's his way of trying to win Alex back. But thats when something wierder than the fact that we had been dancing for 45 minutes happened. She like...stood up for me. Seriously he was rendered speachless and we all know that's a first. Then we left and the entire time we were walking home I couldn't stop laughing. And neither could she..." I stopped to remember the night. Niether of us had touched a drink and yet, both of us were completely elated from the moment we got into the limo at the beginning of the evening. I'd seen Alex in a good mood before, but this didn't even come close. That broad toothy smile didn't leave her face the entire walk back to her place. Looking back I should have seen it coming. She grabbed my hand while we were walking, I let her. I squeezed her hand, she squeezed back.

"Paige? Are you alive over there?" Marco asked me laughing a small giggle. I snapped out of my memories from that night. How long had I been thinking about it? 20 seconds at least.

" Sorry Marco. Uh so anyway, when we got to her house there was a little drama." something told me that I shouldn't clue Marco in on all the details. She worked hard to make other people think that everything was fine, and I was in no position to take that from her. "We wound up leaving and Alex cut her arm on the er..fence" smooth Paige, smooth.

"When we were in my room, we were sitting really really close and I was helping her clean the cut. She uh, she told me I was her lucky charm," I said, unable to stop the blush that was creeping onto my face just saying it.

"AWWWW. PAIGE! MARRY HER!" Marco crooned at the top of his lungs. I couldn't help but smile for a second before I snapped back into reality.

"Alright Marco, don't get to excited, the night didnt exactly end well." I sighed remembering what happened next. " She looked at me Marco, and I swear I had never seen anyones eyes show so much emotion before. I couldn't look away. She told me she was in trouble." Thinking back now, that seemed like such and Alex-y was to tell someone you like them. " And then, she kissed me." I said simply. Marco emitted another low whistle before he answered.

" Lemme guess. You freaked the instant her lips touched yours and ran for cover." he said clearly exasperated. I giggled a bit before I answered.

"Well not _exactly._ I uh, I might have kissed her back for a little bit." I said looking behind me once again. The line was silent for some time before Marco decided to talk.

"How much is a little bit? Like full on kissing or like, you gave her another peck. Did you lean in?" he asked full of curiosity. I had to think for a second.

" Well, it was full on kissing. And you know what I mean so don't make me describe. And it was for a solid 10 or 15 seconds. And yeah, I guess I leaned in. But I mean, you weren't there. You didn't see how she was looking at me. The whole night she was looking at me like that. I couldn't NOT kiss her." I said. I was telling the truth. Not kissing her wasn't even an option. " Then I bailed. I pulled away and I think I said something about the couch. I'm not sure. All I remember saying was 'Nighty night then."

Marco howled with laugter. I guess it was kind of funny. Probably not to Alex though " Nighty. NIGHT.THEN?AHAHAHAHAHA" He exclaimed between laughs. I rolled my eyes, remembering that I probably only had a minute or two before Alex came back.

"Yeah yeah I know. So then the next morning I told her I didn't want to talk about it, and then I saw you. After that we met in the laneway and-and we kissed again. Well she made fun of me and then we kissed. But whatever. " I didn't want to give Marco the chance to let out another "aww". " Of course that little worm Jay saw us and told Hazel." Marco groaned out of sympathy. See this is why I love that guy. "Hazel confronted me about it and I freaked. I completely panicked and told her that Alex meant nothing to me." I said lowering my voice. Stupid stupid stupid idiotic me. I must have replayed that moment in my head a hundred times since then, but it still made my heart drop a little lower into my stomach every time. Her face. Ugh that beautiful face. Her every feature conveyed dissapointment. I felt a little bit better after I apologized, but not much.

"Paaaaaige!" Marco moaned into the phone. He was dissapointed too. God, why am I such a...a bitch!?

" I know Marco, I know. Trust me, I've been kicking myself in the butt every minute since I said it. I believe flushing my head down a toilet was one of the options I considered at the time."

" So this is the first time you've seen her since?" Marco asked. I guess he was expecting me to have gone into hiding again.

"No. I got a little advice from Kevin Smith of all people. He basically told me to ignore everyone else and go 'get the girl' to use a direct quote. So I did. I drove to her apartment that night to try to make things right."

" Woah wait. You, Paige Michealchuck, apologized?" he said with a mixture of shock and mockery dripping from his voice.

" Yes, will you let me finish? She could be out at any second. Ok so after a little coaxing and my sincerest apologies, I got her to give in a little. And then-" I hesitated a little. This was a little personal. I mean Alex totally made me become more cheesy than a Hallmark Card for her, and the worst part about it? Every word I said, I meant it.

" And then..." Marco prompted, eager to hear how the story would unfold. I'm not a soap opera here. Geez.

" And then I told her that right now, she was everything to me.", I let out in one breath. Then I pulled the phone away from my ear and held it away. Not even that distance could completely silence Marco's ' OH MY GOD's and "THAT IS THE SINGLE CUTEST THING YOU HAVE EVER SAID!" I let him carry on like that for about 25 seconds smiling to myself before I remembered the task at hand.

" Then we held hands and looked at eachother for a second. I was just leaning in a little bit when Chad, her mom's loser boyfriend made her come back in because her mom was sick. So she left. And then I left. And now here I am and I have absolutley zero clue what to do." I finished dramatically. Marco though for a second.

" Ok um, how's she handeling it? I mean is she flirting, is she being normal, what?" He asked, going into full Dr. Phil mode.

" Awkward actually. She's kind of avoiding me and stumbleing on her words. She's in the back room right now hiding and I have no clue what to do." I whined the last seven words pouting.

"Ok Paige. Listen. She's confused. The last two times you two did anything or she tried to show you emotion you kinda freaked like a deer caught in headlights. She obviously thinks you're going to do it again and thats why she's avoiding you like a leper." I let this sink in.

" Oh," I responded weakly. Marco sighed. He was getting frusterated with me again and I had no clue why. " What?"

"Well are you going to do it again?" he asked. I didn't take a second to think about that one.

"No. That was the point of going to say sorry. I would never- I-no. Not again." I was serious. There's only so many times a person can handle getting that look from Alex. I was already pushing my limit for that so I wasn't ready to see it again.

"That's good.'Cause Paige, Alex is my friend too okay? So just...she's more sensitive than she lets on." Marco said, choosing his words carefully. I know this. Alex never really showed anyone how she felt. But that night, maybe even a little bit before, she showed me. She does care, no matter how much she protests. She does feel things that everyone else feels. Sadness, happiness, dissapointment, and definetely some anger.

" I know Marco. Thats why I lo-" No Paige. Don't get that invested yet. She could turn you away in seconds. But I still couldn't deny the thought that flashed through my mine. That's why I love her. Why I love Alex. Alex. I love Alex. Aw crap." That's why I lo-err.. like her so much. She's not such a hard ass when she lets you in. She's actaully- " Getting off topic again. " well you know. So what do I do?" This is what I need to know. Come on Marco don't let me down.

" Ok here we go. You have to show her that you're willing to be with her. Start it out slowly. Just brushing by her, touching slightly. Smile at her. Then once you're confortable with that, start the flirting at bit more. Let the touches linger a little. If she's still a little hesitent, don't worry. We know she likes you so thats a sure thing. Be patient and keep going at it. Then when you have a second, be sincere. Say anything that's on your mind. Just make sure to include how you feel. But don't freak her out. Be clever, do it subtley. If all else fails just lay one on her." He said. I swear, Marco Del Rossi should have his own show. He's put Oprah, Doctor Phil and whoever else out of buisness. And his dressing skills are much better than theirs anyway.

" Thank you thank you THANK YOU! You are pure genius." I exclaimed, a smile on my face. All of these things were do-able. " Seriously. My hero." I said. I could have kissed him.

" Stop fawning over me and go put my brilliant plan into action!" he said laughing.

" OK no problem bye thank YOU SO MUCH!" I whispered. Somehow I could still whisper and squeel at the same time. Marco laughed again and said

"Hey no problem. And keep me updated." I hung up the phone and scratched my ear. This is what I do when I'm flustered. I itch and scratch. Half of me wanted to just run in there to her and look in those eyes. Those beautiful brown orbs. But that would probably scare her and she'd just find a better hiding spot. No, this needs to be done _delicatley_. Marco gave me the outline, but it's time to put that plan into action.

"HEY ALEX?"


	3. the stages of palex

**AN:** So I just realized that I haven't included a disclaimer yet. I don't own anything to do with Degrassi, Canada, JuJu Bees ect... Anyway, thanks to everyone who reviewed me, I really appreciate all the feedback. For everyone who read and didn't review, its ok I do the same thing ).

**Alex's POV**

How the hell did I get to this point? I was standing there hiding from some Paige, pretending to sort out candy. What I was really doing was standing against the wall banging my head off of it.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid" I said with every bash to the wall. I stopped after the eleven or twelth time because I couldn't really afford to lose any more brain cells if my grades were any indication. According to Paige I have "untapped potential" or something, whatever that means. By that time I had stopped trying to make my mind not wander to her. My mind wandered wherever the hell it wanted regardless of where I actually _wanted_ it to. But at that particular moment I really didn't appreciate having to think about her. Not that I was mad at her or anything. Nah, I couldn't really stay mad at her for that long, and I think she knows it. No I wasn't mad I was... well I was scared as hell. Up until now, Paige and I had a fairly simple realationship. Scratch that. It was never simple, but I always knew where we stood with eachother. First enemies. Or maybe not. I don't really know anymore. I guess I didn't hate her since I didn't even know her that much. She was just funny to provoke. But for the sake of argument, we were "Enemies". We would yell across rooms and halls and even the occasional street at eachother, both of us trying to win control. And do you know what really pissed me off? At least 70 perecent of the time, she won. She would stun me into silence. She can still do that now, just in a different kind of way.

After enemies we were co workers. That was probably the shortest of our phases. I couldn't help but start to like her, even the day she came into work. Not long after that we went through our "friends, but we don't really talk to eachother unless we're alone or with Marco so the rest of our friends don't find out" phase. I was probably just as guily of doing that as she was. I wasn't with Jay at that point but I still had a reputation to live up to. She'd not even look my way when Hazel was near, but as soon a she looked away, Paige would throw me a smile, maybe even a wink. Finally we reached out " actually friend friends" phase. The summer before our senior year, we spent a lot of time at work together. All those summer blockbusters are to blame for my current problem. When Paige asked me if I wanted to just stay over her house one night after work I almost chocked on a sweedish fish.

After that we'd hang out outside of work, and when school started it was the same. I didn't really get what I was starting to feel though. I'd rather just push it to the back of my mind than deal with it. The first time I finally admitted it to myself I was high. Yup. And so was she. Mr. I-haven't-shaven-all-the-way-in-a-month-and-I-think-it-looks-good dumped her and then gave her drugs. Who does Paige try to unload them on? Yours truly. I'd been good latley. I hadn't touched a drug since before I broke up with Jay. But seeing a high Paige was way too tempting of an offer for me to pass up. Only Paige would ask about a million and one questions before she actually lit the thing. We had goofed around at the college fair doing God knows what but it finally ended we were just sitting in the hallways. Funny, she had done the same thing to Mr.Simpson I did to her two years ago. She was sitting with her legs stretched out and she tripped him. Kinda weird isn't it? That her tripping someone was the reason why I noticed that I liked her more than I should have. After that, we kept doing things like normal, but I was trying extra hard to act like nothing had changed. I personally think that it was a convincing act. I'm way too good of a liar than is good for me. Still, it was a hell of a lot harder with her than it was with anyone else I had ever lied to. I could lie to my mom no sweat, but Paige? That took some mental preperation. Which is why the night of the premiere I snapped. I took advantage of a time when we were both really, simply, just plain old happy and relaxed. So I kissed her. I'd been working my way up to it all night. I might've been working my way up to it since the day Mr. O dumped her. Whatever it was, I couldn't forget about it anymore. When I felt her kiss me back I thought that my heart was going to beat out of my chest. I know that's a really cliche thing to say, but thats actually what it felt like.

So I went home that night, walked past my mom lying on the couch and layed in bed. I was trying to think of reasons why I _didn't_ like Paige, but for some reason it was backfiring. All I could think of were reasons why I liked her. Stupid reasons really. How she plays with her hair when she's taking a test. Or how she wears sunglasses in her car regardless of the weather. How she has no problem putting anyone in their place without having to lay a hand on them. That's definetley something that she could teach me. But I would never touch her. Sure I might have threatened to once or twice in out enemy phase but even then I probably would have just huffed away. No she uses other weapons. Personally I'd rather get punched in the face by her than have to take her cold insults. She had a way of making me want to just dissapear and never ever come back. That's why what she said to Hazel hit me as hard as it did. I'm used to being ditched or betrayed by people. My dad left, Jay cheated, my own mom likes her boyfriend better than me. So you'd think it wouldn't really bother me so much anymore. At least, thats what I thought. But once again, Paige changed everything for me. I actually cried. She saw my crying because of something she said. I was livid. Absoutley furious, and the majority of that anger was directed at me, not her. There was still some anger left over for her to get some, make no mistake in that, but I was pissed at myself for caring enough about what she thought of me to cry. When I opened my door that night and saw her standing there, I was stunned to silence for about a second. Then my anger jumped back. I didn't have the emotional room to be awkward and nervous around her, because all of the space was being taken up by me being pissed off. But then, she did it. She made that damn face. I swear to God she knows what effect is had on me because the second she gave me that pout I softened up like ice cream left out on the beach. And then, just to seal the deal, she said it. She said the opposite of what she said to Hazel. She said I was everything to her. And then the idiot called me back into the hell hole so I had to leave her out there. At the time I was sure that meant that she was actually going to give the whole relationship thing a go. But the more I thought about it, the more I was questioning myself. Maybe she meant she still wanted to be my friend. I mean, there was no eternal love declaration. No prancing down the streets holding hands. No frolicking through the fields arm in arm. There were two people touching eachother's hand in a dark apartment hallway and a drunk guy.

But, I don't think I could be her friend. I can't. Which explained why I was hiding away while she was on her cell phone. Love really does stink. Jay stunk too but I don't think I loved him. At least she's not torturing me by staying near me. I have some space to just think.

"ALEX?"

Shit.


	4. what are we?

"ALEX!" Paige yelled a second time, coming closer to the door. Paige knew exactly where Alex was hiding, but she wanted to pretend as if she hadn't noticed. _Keep it casual at first, _Paige kept telling herself, trying to prevent another disaster. Alex's face paled for a second before she regained control and took a big breath.

"Back here!" she yelled back hoping that Paige just wanted to make sure she hadn't escaped and that she would continue leaving her alone. Just as she thought this though, she heard footsteps coming toward the door. As Paige opened the door Alex remembered that she was supposedly organizing candy and tried to grab a fistful of it from behind her. Her hand knocked down the entire box just as Piage looked at her.

" Dammit!" Alex muttered bending down to pick up the wrappers. As she bent over she banged her head on the table next to her and tripped over a stray bag of skittles. Paige stared at her for a brief moment before rushing over to her. Alex grimaced and looked at Paige who was sitting next to her, obviously fighting a laugh.

She blushed and said, " Go ahead. I would." She looked away and rubbed her head trying to hide her face from Paige.

Paige emitted a small giggle and said, "So much for organizing the candy eh?" as she tried to get a better look at Alex's face. Alex was turned around from her trying to cover up her nose which had began to bleed. Paige touched Alex's arm knowing it would make her face her. Sure enough Alex inhaled and involuntarily looked in her direction. Paige gasped and moved her hand away.

"It's not that bad Paige. I just need a tissue or paper towel, something like that." Alex said rolling her eyes. Paige relaxed her face muscles and pulled a tissue from her back pocket and handed it to Alex. Alex raised her eyebrows and flashed her trademark smirk.

"You keep tissues in your pocket?" she said teasing her. Paige pouted overdramatically and folded her arms glaring at Alex. Evententually she had to crack a smile because Alex wiggled her eyebrows again.

" Well usually I keep them up my sleeve. but these stupid uniforms don't have sleeves so..." she trailed off because Alex raised her eyebrows again. She wacked her lightly on the arm and then got up. She looked down at Alex and strechted out her hand. Alex looked at it and then looked at Paige. Paige sighed and said " Well take it." Alex began to blush again, remembering why she had been avoiding Paige. She grabbed her hand and Paige pulled her up. As Alex tried to regain her balance, her body brushed against Paige. It was Paige's turn to blush this time, turning away.

_I knew it. I KNEW she didn't want to be...whatever he hell it is that we would be together. _Alex thought to herself. Paige bit her lip still faced away from Alex. Only Alex could get that intense of a reaction from her by only touching her for a moment. Paige turned around and examined Alex's face.

" Let me see your nose." she commanded reaching up to touch Alex's face. Alex's quickly moved her head to avoid the hand.

" I'm fine, It's ok." she said, still ducking her head away from Paige's fingers. Alex could still feel the tension between the two of them everytime one would let their touch linger for more than a second.

" Alex you seem to be forgetting that I have a weapon." Paige said still trying to grab at her face. Alex stopped squirming and looked at Paige curiously. " I know the spot. The tickleish spot." Paige concluded folding her arms and looking unflinchingly into Alex's chocolate eyes. She was happy to see that Alex looked a little nervous as she scoffed.

" Where did you get that? I'm _not _tickleish! " She protested trying to sound confident. Paige laughed and stepped forward. Alex swallowed and stayed frozen where she was. " I'm not". Paige advanced another step, now nose to nose with Alex.

" I guess you forgot that I found it when we were watching that movie last month. But fine, have it your way. But just to make sure..." She reached her hand threateningly to Alex , "I should at least try." WIth that she began tickleing Alex right above her left hip bone. Sure enough Alex let out a yelp and laughed uncontrollably desperatley trying to remove Paige's hand. Paige moved her hand to Alex's neck and attacked that area next. Alex screamed even louder at this attack and began squirming against the counter. Paige's eyes gleamed with victory. " Two spots Lexy? Who would've known?"

Alex struggled for another ten seconds before gving up the fight. " Alright, ALRIGHT! You win just- just stop PLEASE!" she exclaimed gasping for breath. Paige still had her pinned against the counter. Paige lowered her hands, but stayed where she was keeping Alex trapped between her and the counter.

" Weakness found! This is valuable info! Now let me see that nose!" Paige said still giggling from their fun. Alex grumbled, but did as she was told. She lifted her head up so that Paige could see more clearly. Paige held her chin examining the nose. Alex managed to control her breathing this time, but focused on the wall behind Paige.

_If I look in her eyes, I'm done. I'll probably kiss her again. This whole avoidance thing isn't working out so well. I don't get her, does she like me or not? She's sure acting like she does, and I THINK she said she did on Friday. Maybe kissing her wouldn't be such a stupid thing. What's the worst thing she can do? Say she doesn't like me like that? Ok ok that's actually pretty bad. I should just leave things the way they are for now. Don't flirt. Don't flirt._

" Ok you were right, your nose is fine. All that tickle energy wasted." Paige said still holding her face in her left hand. Alex couldn't avoid looking at her anymore and met her eyes. She was suddenly very aware that Paige was touching her face. Paige also noticed the contact but kept her hand there, begging her with her eyes.

_Come on Alex. Do it. Kiss me again. Show me what your thinking. Please. _Paige was breathing heavily, her heart racing. Alex on the other hand had stopped breathing at all. She finally came back to reality when the sound of a screaming toddler reached her ears.

" I uh, I think we'd better get out there. The movie's probably about to start." She whispered, her face still inches from Paige's. Paige still kept her hand where it was and continued looking at Alex.

" Alex, what are we?" she whispered back, suprising herself at her boldness. Alex opened her mouth to answer as the door opened. Behind Paige was Meerie, hands on her hips looking over at the pair of them.

" You're bad employees right now Ms. Michelchuck. I suggest you and Alex get back to the front counter immedietly."


	5. I'm so gay!

**AN: ok so I suck I guess. This story is just one of those things that you really truly meant to keep doing but then you just forget. Then you remember at the most random times, like in the middle of a soccer game "oh crap! I meant to update my damn story!". Well I finally remembered at a time that I could actually get some work done on it. **

**Disclaimer: I own less than a homeless person in debt.**

**Alex's POV**

Saying that time stopped has always been way too cliche to ever come out of my mouth. But when I turned around to see Meeri standing in front of us with _that_ look that stupid little saying came to mind. I'm pretty sure that in this whole freaking movie theatre, I'm the only one who has experienced the That Look enough to recognize it. Paige has gotten it once, if ever, and Meeri is nothing but polite to our precious costumers. But me? I have seen her get That Look on her face so many times, I could paint a 'friggin portrait of it. So she's standing there giving it to both of us hardcore, and I can pretty much feel Paige shrinking underneath it. She's not immune yet you see, so naturally she reacts this way. After standing and staring long enough for the situation to be above and beyond awkward, Paige suddenly pushed me away from her and got her _own_ look on her face. The kind of look she used to give me before, when one of us was threatening to stomp the life out of the other. For a split second I was shocked and even, I hate to admit, hurt. I wasn't sure but I thought we were kind of having a moment of sorts.

" Sorry Meeri," she said, still glaring at me," Alex and I seem to be having problems working together again. We've been having a few spats here and there so I decided to confront her about them back here so the constumers wouldn't overhear." When she finished I somehow knew exaclty what was going on. She was _pretending_ to be mad at me. Making up an excuse for being caught nose to nose alone in a back room. And hell, for a second even _I _believed her, so Meerie definetely should. I decided that it would probably help her story move along if I contributed. I gave her a quick wink before opening my mouth so she wouldn't think that I had just skrocketed to insanity.

" Oh _please_ princess, you cornered me back here so you could scream in my face and make yourself look good. Which, is probably a hard task to do." I said, putting on my best "bitch voice" that I used to save specifically for Paige. She placed her hands on her hips and scowled at me. But even through her frown I could tell that she was amused. Her eyes did this thing that not many people's can do. It's like the rest of her face is pissed, but her eyes are cracking up.

Apparently Meeri didn't notice this because she just kept on giving that look.Honestly she should copyright it. Maybe the fine people of Toronto will build a statue with That Look engraved on it. Not that Meeri could ever observe something so personal about Paige. You could only realise when she was doing it if you watched her very closley, which of course, I do a LOT. Anyway Meeri was glaring and finally she seemed to settle on what exaclty to do.

" Well I am gathering that you two are not done fighting this out yet. Am I correct Ms. Michelchuck?" She asked, keeping her teetch gritted the entire time. I looked over at Paige and just as she was about to open her mouth to answer I cut in. Timing is key.

" Oh yeah, always ask Paige. It's not like my opinion matters at all. If Ms.Employee of the month doesn't think we're done fighting, then I guess we're not done fighting. Fine with me!" I said, fully aware that I sounded like an ass. Play fighting with Paige came easy because we used to do it so often. But it's more fun because neither of us mean the bad things we say about eachother. Also I just like feeling smarter than Meeri! For a second I thought Paige was going to laugh, but she restrained herself long enough to regain control of her facial features.

" Alright Alex. I can_ totally _see now that you're done fighting with me! Point proven!" she said sarcasm dripping from her voice. Wow sarcasm, that's not usually her style while in combat. I must be rubbing off on her.

Meeri surveyed the two of us for a moment beofre grabbing us by the shoulders. I have to admit, she had some grip on us, I don't think I could have gotten out of it even if I tried. Lifting all of those jumbo popcorns must be paying off." Well I can see that you're not done fighting with eachother. Normally, I would fire both of you. But everyone else besides Stacey quit or I fired them. And Stacey is having some sort of skin issue or something, so all I have is you two." Paige let out a little snort of laughter that she tried to cover as a sneeze. Adorable.

" I am putting you in the closet and I am locking the door. I will leave you there for a minimum of two hours. That is_ not _to say that I wont leave you there the entire night if you do NOT stop trying to claw eachothers eyes out every second you get. Are we clear?"

Oh... oh that I could work with. That, I could _definetely _work with. This could be wishful thinking but, I was pretty sure Paige had an evil glint in her eye. But a good kind of evil. The "possible third makeout session" kind of evil. Oh my god when did I get sounbelievably GAY?

"Crystal." I said to Meeri as she dragged us by the shoulder to the closet. She shoved us in and shut the door. Paige put her ear against the door and pounded her fist.

" Two hours, starting now.'' Meerie said and walked away.


	6. Feet and Butter or Pine?

"Ms.Nunez, you should consider a job in acting. _Very _convincing." I said, still faced away from Alex towards the door. To be honest, I was afraid of what would come next. When I planned my little scheme, I hadn't quite gotten that far yet. Then again, I also hadn't expected Alex to catch on so quickly. Maybe she'll catch on this time so I don't have to say what's on my mind point blank. The idea of flat out telling her that I want to be with her makes those stupid butterflies in my stomach start to flutter. And those butterflies have been sleeping for a _very_ long time. Only recently, when I've been with Alex have they decided to spread their stupid creepy wings. Oh man, I really am losing it. I'm talking about butterflies like they actually exist in my stomach.

"Yeah", she said while I turned around to look in her eyes, "well we had some pretty good rehersals way back when.". She had on that smirk that she makes when she's daring me to disagree with her. But I couldn't. The fake argument that we had seconds before was pretty much modeled after all our previous arguments from months, even years before. I emitted a small laugh and muttered that I knew what she was talking about. I finally remembered that the closet we were standing in was seven-by-seven feet, meaning that we would have to eventually get close enough to touch. Just as I was thinking this, Alex decided to shuffle in closer towards me. Our legs were tangled, and her hand was on the wall behind me, leaving our faces 4 inches from eachother at most.The smirk had vanished off her face, and she had an expression on very similar to the one she had before she kissed me. But I was prepared this time. Scared out of mind but prepared. I closed my eyes and wait for her to lean in.

" Hmm...this closet smells like pine." I heard Alex's voice say this due to the fact that her face was so close to mine. However, I kept my eyes closed for another second, hoping that I hallucinated that, and that her lips would crah into mine before I had to face the reality of what she actually said. I opened one eye, and saw her with a face on that look horrified with herself.At least she knew that comment had bad timing written all over it. It really would have been adorable coming from her if I hadn't wanted to kiss her so badly at that particular moment.

" Seriously...didn't it used to smell like feet and butter?" she said raising an eyebrow sniffing the air. She is so cute and just...un-tough. It's ridiculous, I don't know how I missed it before. She's right though, this closet used to _reak._

" It did, trust me, it did. I cleaned it and sprayed some de-stinkifying stuff before you came in today because I couldn't stand coming into this room anymore." I sniffed the air next. I _may_ have over sprayed the fresh pine scent a little, but hey! It's a lot better than 'feet and butter'. It looked like Alex had gotten over the embarassment she was feeling a second ago because the smirk made yet another appearence accompanied by two raised eyebrows. I wasn't sure what I had said to make her get that face on, but I'm sure glad I said it because she looked so hot with it on. But why? Does she still think that "Queen Bee" doesn't do any work?

"What?" I asked trying to intimidate her. It must have worked a little because she actually blushed and started fiddleing with the mop handle. I pulled her hand away, and very sneakily,(or not so much) kept it in mine. " Alex why are you making that face?" I said pouting. She finally averted her eyes and answered in a voice that screamed "smart ass",

" Well it's just...were you uh-_expecting_ to use the closet today?" she risked a glance towards myself who, I am humilated to state, must have resembled a tomato. But, I'm a Michelchuck, I can cover my tracks quickly, and sound confident while doing it.

" Wouldn't _you_ like to find out!" I said giving her a taste of her own smart-ass-medicine. But this just made her turn away again and bite her lip.

This time, instead of getting unsure of myself and questioning how she feels, I smiled to myself. This was getting ridiculous, we keep missing the perfect moments. Just then I remembered something that I learned a long time ago. If you want something done, do it yourself. Alex had already kissed me twice, both times I screwed up enough to make her to freaked to EVER want to try again. And I'm not being cocky ( too much anyway), but I know that she wants there to be an "us" just as bad as I do. So the next perfect moment, or even the not so perfect moment, I'm just going to kiss her.

Alex was leaning against the wall and I walked over and basically pressed my body against hers. "Are we honestly not going totake advantage of being locked in a closet together for an undefined amount of time?" I asked, my lips literally millimeters from her ear. I had my hands on both of her hips, and my legs wrapped around hers. If she wasn't getting the point I was trying to make by now, I'm not sure how else I can say it.

She went to speak, but no sound was coming out of her mouth. I saw her swallow, my hand running up and down her side. She tried to speak again, "what...what do you uh mean?". Her voice came out low and horse which basically pushed my little blond head over the edge. With my lips still very close to her lips, I said the words that did it.

"You know _exactly_ what I mean", and at the word 'mean', I let my lips brush her earlobe. Suddenly, Alex moved so quickly, I didn't even have time to register what had happened.


End file.
